Sarasota Schools Overhauling HR After Investigation Into Riverview High

The district is changing how it investigates employee misconduct to address findings that previous internal reviews failed to properly handle allegations of teacher wrongdoing and conflicts of interest.

• •Sarasota County Schools is moving misconduct investigations out of the HR department into a separate office.
• •A third-party report by Hultman + Joshi found that district leadership mishandled complaints regarding cheating, sexual harassment, and misuse of school resources at Riverview High.
• •The report identified a 'culture of fear' where staff who reported misconduct were sometimes investigated themselves.
• •One complaint involved a Spanish teacher in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program allegedly helping students cheat on oral exams.
• •A second complaint involved a teacher allegedly making inappropriate sexualized comments to female students.
• •A third complaint involved an IB coordinator allegedly profiting from a private business using school facilities and resources.
• •The report author, Nikhil Joshi, acknowledged a prior business relationship with the IB coordinator whose conduct he reviewed.
• •Initial internal district investigations in 2020 cleared the accused teachers of wrongdoing.
• •The district has not publicly released the full report, which was obtained by Suncoast Searchlight.